Gears Of War Fanon:Beginner's Guide/Roleplaying
Welcome to the Gears Fanon Beginner's Guide to Roleplaying! This guide will teach you how to properly participate in a roleplay. Please keep in mind that all roleplay owners/DungeonMasters run their roleplays differently. This is a generic guide and it does not account for all contingencies. Guide written by User:Screennameless. Joining a Roleplay So you've found a roleplay that interests you. How do you join? A good roleplay will give you prompters, but in case it doesn't, here's what you do: :1. There should be a section labeled "Participants". Edit the section and add your username. You'll probably enter something like this: ::*Username :2. Now save the page, and scroll down. You're looking for a section that's either labeled "Characters" or "Units" - it depends on the type of roleplay. Edit the section and enter the names of your characters/units with your username somewhere nearby to mark them as yours: ::;Username ::*Character Name Congratulations! You've successfully joined a roleplay! Now you just have to wait for the owner of the roleplay to get it started. Invitation-Only Roleplays When a community is large, sometimes people will create invitation-only roleplays. They may want specific writers or characters in their roleplay, they may want to only roleplay with people they know well, or they may simply want a bit more control over the participants in general. If a roleplay is marked as invitation only, then you'll likely have to satisfy yourself with simply reading as it plays out. You can ask for an invitation, but don't be disappointed if you're refused. Canon Character Roleplays Canon character roleplays occur when fans each take the role of one or multiple preexisting canon characters and act out either canon or fanon events while pretending to be those characters. These are not particularly common on fanon wikis and are instead more typical of forums and chatrooms. This is not to say they are necessarily bad; it just requires the players to be actors and have a good understanding of the canon character. For example, say you and a friend are roleplaying Baird and Cole going to an ice cream store. You, as Baird, would have to be appropriately cynical when your friend, as Cole, can't decide which ice cream flavor he should get, baby! Rocky road, strawberry - ooh, chocolate chip cookie dough, he ain't never had that before, but - HEY!, this one's rainbow, Baird! Rainbow!!! And of course you would respond, "Just pick a damn flavor already!" or "You know what, why don't you buy every fucking flavor since you're so chipper about it?!" And then Cole might answer with what an awesome idea that is, and how you're pretty smart sometimes, Baird baby. Obviously, this can be very fun, but it can also get a little ridiculous and easily veer out of character. Participating in the Roleplay Most roleplays start when the owner creates an introduction or makes the first post. Posts will be labeled individually - generally they are numbered to distinguish where one ends and the next begins. Posts may be signed, but this isn't always necessary - it depends on the roleplay owner's preference. In other words, if the roleplay owner signs his posts, you should probably sign your own. If he doesn't, it's up to you. Participating in a roleplay is rather like cowriting a story where you only control one element: your characters/units. You control their movements and their speech. But you do not control other characters' reactions to them, because those characters are controlled by different players. And you do not control their goals - this is generally the choice of the roleplay owner. Finally, their ultimate fates are more or less out of your hands. How quickly and cleverly your characters react to their surroundings, how well they interact with other characters, how well they deal with surprise situations - these things determine their fates, though you can choose not to allow a character to be killed if you really don't want them to. Posting After the owner makes the first post, other players are free to start posting. You can post in any order and do not have to "wait" to let any person in particular go ahead of you. However, it is considered good form to not post several times in a row or, say, every other post. A roleplay is a group effort, so you want to give other people time to put up their posts! When posting, carefully consider your situation. You are likely given a starting location or goal by the roleplay owner: say, "patrolling the East District". If there is a map of the roleplay, it's probably not a bad idea to print out your own copy and mark where your characters are and where they are moving. It's the best way to keep track of what buildings they'll be near and any other characters or situations they may bump into and have to react to. Posting is essentially writing your own chapter of this group story. You illustrate what your characters are doing, maybe throw in a little conversation between them. If there is something they need to fight, you make them fight. Say you're controlling a tank in a small platoon of tanks. If the platoon is ordered into the fray, you might write about the tank crew driving the vehicle into the crossfire, the pinging of the bullets on the metal, the echo of the blast as your tank fires. Then you would let someone else post - likely whoever you shot at. Generally, you don't want to make a post unless you have the time to do it in full. Waiting for the second half of a post is annoying, especially when you have your own idea and can't post because someone hasn't finished theirs. Interacting with Other Players Interacting with other players is probably the most difficult part of roleplaying. You cannot control what any characters do or say unless they are your own. If you are controlling a squad of gears, and they run into another squad of gears, you cannot write a conversation between your squad and the other person's. If you want a conversation, you must direct a comment at that other squad and wait for them to respond. Likewise, if you are controlling a squad of gears, and you bump into a squad of Locust, you cannot write a full-on firefight. You can write down exactly what your characters do in reaction to seeing the Locust - they get behind cover, they shoot at the biggest Drone, they stop to reload - but you can't make any of your shots connect. That's ultimately up to the other player. And then you must wait for them to return fire, to retreat, to call in another squad, whatever, and then you must react as you feel is appropriate. This is the give and take nature of roleplaying, and what makes it so fun. You don't know what'll happen next. Ideally, if you are to interact with another player, you will both make plans to be on at the same time or will cowrite the conversation outside of the roleplay and post it together. It's frustrating to have to wait a day for a single line of conversation. Injury and/or Death of a Character In relation to interacting with other players, you must be open to allowing your characters to die. This is very important. I'm not saying you have to let someone kill your favorite character you've ever made ever. But nearly every roleplay for a videogame like Gears of War is going to be a battle, and you can't expect all your characters to get away without a scratch. Let shots connect now and then. Let people die now and then. A good strategy is to plan a suitable death for every character you create (believe it or not, this is what I do). When you finish creating a character or even a unit, immediately consider what the best way for them to die would be in accordance with their personality. If they're a headstrong, gung-ho soldier, they're likely to get shot charging recklessly into battle. If they're a sniper, they might get shot after missing a target, or someone might sneak up on their sniper point from behind and shoot them in the back while they're aiming. It might be true that they simply should die of old age - that's okay. Just be open to the idea of letting your characters be injured, letting them die. Nobody likes a player who never allows his/her characters to be hurt. Surprise Situations and Random Encounters Some roleplay owners like to include what is called a "surprise situation" or, to those who have played games such as Final Fantasy, a "random encounter". On rare occasions they may be referred to as "heads up situations". These roleplay owners take a role more akin to a DungeonMaster (DM) in Dungeons & Dragons would, springing new issues on the players without warning. Surprise situations are always directed at a specific player or players and are usually one or two sentence prompts: :''Username: The lights in your area flicker and die. Kryll swoop down from over the rooftops!'' Or a less negative one: :''Username: You see a dog in the distance. He's barking incessantly at the door of a house.'' When one of these prompts is directed at you, you must immediately drop or wrap up what you were previously doing to respond to the new situation. These are usually only issued when a person seems stuck on what to do or when the roleplay owner needs the action to move in a particular direction. General Roleplay Etiquette Generally, all roleplays will have five to seven basic rules that go as follows: Rule 1: The roleplay owner/DungeonMaster has ultimate say. Rule 2: Try not to make tons of posts before anyone else can get anything in. OR Rule 2: No one player can have two posts next to each other. Rule 3: No godmoding. Or the roleplay owner/DungeonMaster will smite you as per the provisions in Rule 1. Rule 4: If you want somebody to die, ask the owner of the character. Rule 5: The RP occurs during (x'' time period). Keep that in mind. Rule 6: The forces are split into (''n groups), one arriving at (y'' time) and one arriving later at (''w time). Pay attention to which group you are part of. Rule 7: Your destruction is the will of the gods (aka HAVE FUN WITH IT). Examples of Great Roleplays *The Nitroneon Rebellion at Halo Fanon - a great example of an invitation-only roleplay. See Also *Gears of War Fanon:Beginner's Guide/Character Creation *Gears of War Fanon:Beginner's Guide/DMing Category:Beginner's Guides